FIELD NOTES NEWSLETTER OF THE HERTFORDSHIRE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY ISSUE 15 April 2009 Publication fund for ‘Flora of Balls Wood Saved! Hertfordshire’ off to a flying start. On 1st April Herts & Middx Wildlife Trust announced that its campaign to save Balls Plans to publish the next HNHS book ‘Flora of Wood had been successful. We are delighted Hertfordshire’ have received a real boost thanks that the Trust has secured a future for this 145 to very generous donations from two HNHS acre (58 ha) woodland - at risk of sale. Balls members, but more funds are needed before we Wood is particularly noted for its butterfly can go ahead. See page 2. populations and supports diverse wildlife. When the Forestry Commission decided to sell it last year, HMWT was given first option to buy, but it has been a real challenge over the last ten months for HMWT to raise the money. The Trust’s campaign focused not only on the need to save the wood in its own right but also on its importance as one of a (broken) chain of woodlands that stretch from the Lee Valley to the M25 at Potters Bar. A key link in the chain, Broxbourne Woods National Nature Reserve is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a SSSI. The chain also includes 228 Local Wildlife Sites, four Wildlife Trust Reserves (Fir and Pond Pasque Flower– Hertfordshire’s ‘County Flower’, to feature Woods, Danemead, Gobions Wood and Balls on the cover of the forthcoming ‘Flora’. Photo taken at Wood) and Northaw Great Wood SSSI. This Therfield Heath on 5 April 2009 by Steve Chilton chain of woodland has enormous potential to become linked once more through acquisition, New HNHS website goes live joint management and support. Overall, the area is 96.7 sq. km (37.33 sq miles). Have a look at our fantastic new website at www.hnhs.org which goes live in mid-April. It Over ten months the Trust mobilised support has been built by specialists Digital Routes to a from local people and organisations to raise the design by Jack Fearnside of LTD Design £130,000 necessary to unlock grants for the Consultants. We aim to keep it up to date with additional money needed to buy the wood. This information and news including the Wildlife has now proved successful and the rest of the Calendar of meetings of local natural history purchase price has been funded by Natural interest. The site is also a showcase for England through Defra’s Aggregates Levy photographs of Hertfordshire’s wildlife and Sustainability Fund and Lafarge Aggregates habitats, changing on a seasonal basis. So through the Landfill Communities Fund please keep those photos coming in to Jack. administered by Groundwork Hertfordshire. Hertfordshire County Council contributed funds Digital Routes are now building the new site for the Herts Bird Club which should go live in a few Page 3: Buried natural history treasures – the weeks and will have the facility for online record HNHS book collection at UCL submission. Once this has been established for Page 4: Herts Bird Club conference report bird records we will extend the facility to other Page 4: Recorders and recording wildlife groups. Page 5: Obituary – Jeremy Boswell Pages 6-8: Hertfordshire Wildlife Calendar essential to release the money from the Landfill ‘Publication of the Flora will be a fantastic Communities Fund, and a number of charitable achievement for the Society. It will be the trusts also made significant contributions. culmination of 25 years of careful survey work by a dedicated team of plant enthusiasts. Sylvia HMWT Chief Executive Judy Adams says: “We Kingsbury and Vernon Taylor have shown the have been staggered by the response from our way with their generous donations towards the supporters. Our thanks go to all our contributors funding of the Flora, We hope others will give for helping us safeguard this wonderful what they can to enable the project to go ahead. woodland for future generations of both people For the Moths book, corporate sponsorship was and wildlife.” important but individual donations ranging from £50 to £1000 made all the difference to the viability of the project’ Author, Trevor James has now completed the main text for the Flora and designer, Jack Fearnside has started work on the styles for the page layouts. The book will cover over 2000 species of vascular plants and hybrids recorded in Hertfordshire based on a countywide survey from 1987-2005 by HNHS and other volunteers. The species accounts will include distribution maps by tetrad, analysis of status, and comparison with information from ‘The Flora of Now that HMWT has the opportunity to manage Hertfordshire’ by John Dony, published in 1967. the whole site, including Hobbyhorse Wood, it There will also be introductory sections setting will aim to restore and create new habitat to the scene describing the history of botanical encourage wildlife to move between it and recording, Hertfordshire’s physical make up – neighbouring Hertford Heath and nearby geology, soils, climate and hydrology, the history Broxbourne Woods. Balls Wood has the of our natural landscape; Hertfordshire’s wild potential to become a ‘wildlife corridor’, plant habitats, their ecology and changing flora. providing a wider area for species to inhabit and Appendices will cover a Hertfordshire Plant Red offering them better chances of survival. Data List, a selected bibliography and sources Clare Gray, HMWT and a Gazetteer of localities and sites named in * the text. To donate to the Flora fund send your cheque, ‘Flora of Hertfordshire’ publication payable to ‘HNHS’, to Linda Smith, HNHS fund gets off to a flying start. Secretary, 24 Mandeville Rise, Welwyn Garden Plans to publish the next HNHS book ‘Flora of City, AL8 7JU, or give on-line at Hertfordshire’ have received a real boost thanks www.justgiving.com. Donations are eligible for to very generous donations from two HNHS GiftAid which increases the value by over 20%. members: Sylvia Kingsbury and Vernon Taylor, although more funds are needed before we can * go ahead. Buried natural history treasures – Members of the HNHS Management Committee the HNHS book collection at UCL agreed at their meeting in February to proceed The 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth with publication of the book provided external and the 150th of The Origin of Species coincide funding can be secured to underpin the costs of with completion of the cataloguing of the production. The target is £15,000. Building on Hertfordshire Natural History Society collection, the experience of The Moths of Hertfordshire, which the Society deposited at University the Committee estimate that at least £38,000 College London in 1935. will be needed to publish and distribute the Flora. Only a proportion of these costs will be The HNHS collection comprises 1300 items recoverable through sales of the book. published mostly in English, with publication dates going back to 1671. It reflects the widest Launching the fund raising appeal, Linda Smith definition of ‘natural history’, including not only said: the study of living plants and animals, their 2 ecosystems, habitats and distribution but also HNHS 1875 Award the study of all the components of the natural world including palaeontology, geology and We are delighted that the Society’s inaugural even meteorology. Its coverage ranges from the 1875 Award was presented to Colin Plant at the general (elementary meteorology, plant and AGM for his outstanding contribution to natural history in Hertfordshire. Colin, who has been our animal classification and nomenclature) to the County Recorder for Moths for over ten years, is national (the history of British butterflies, the author of the impressive HNHS book: ‘The grasses in Scotland) and the local (Gilbert Moths of Hertfordshire’ published last July. White’s ‘Natural History of Selborne’, flora of Herefordshire). The name of the award commemorates the founding of the Society in 1875. The hunt is now Much of the collection, particularly the serials on for nominations for the 2009 awards (journals), consists of the records of local natural history societies – largely comprising amateur As announced at the AGM, up to two awards will naturalists – from the 17th century to the late be given each year to recognise: th 20 , and includes painstakingly observed and • an outstanding Hertfordshire naturalist listed inventories of local flora and fauna as well and/or as meteorological data. This makes them a • someone who has made an outstanding valuable record of the changing distribution contribution to natural history in patterns of plants, animals and local climate in th Hertfordshire. the UK since 1671 (though most are late 19 Those nominated for awards will be judged century works). against the following criteria:- The collection also contains the records of field • Contribution in a voluntary capacity. clubs, whose areas of interest extend to • Recognised expertise in their field. archaeology and local history, and parts of it • Duration of contribution. provide a visual feast. The camera did not exist during these early years so the skill of illustration • Key achievements, e.g. publications, papers. was extremely important in establishing what the • Training or educating others. flora and fauna looked like for members who • Championing conservation and natural needed to know what they were looking for and history. make an accurate count. The resulting Nominees should normally be HNHS members. woodcuts, copperplates and watercolours are The HNHS Management Committee will assess extremely impressive, both as records of living nominations and make the final decision. The wildlife and as works of art in their own right. Awards will be presented at the HNHS AGM and To browse the collection in the new electronic Autumn meeting in November. catalogue, link to the library web page Nominations for the 2009 Award by 30 May www.ucl.ac.uk/library.